Scott Jackson

With a father in the RCAF, Scott was raised a “PMQ Brat” at several airbases on the Canadian Prairies and in Germany. While in high school, he was a member of 418 (City of Edmonton) Air Reserve Squadron and he used that work experience to get hired with Air Canada Line Maintenance in Vancouver. Working steady midnights and learning to fly during the days for the next three years, Scott was very fortunate to be hired into Flight Operations with minimum time. Retiring in 2010 after 41 years as Line Pilot, Instructor Pilot and Check Pilot, and having enjoyed flying the DC-8 and -9, Boeing 747/727/767/777 and Airbus 320/330/340 plus the fabulous Lockheed TriStar, he also owned a string of airplanes, beginning with a Clipped-Wing Cub, a self-built Pitts Special, a Skyhawk and a Turbo Centurion. He now owns a Cardinal (his wife’s Lunch Buggy) and a slow-built RV-6, as well as co-owned a Twin Comanche. Ten years ago, he earned his Instructor Rating and, after teaching three of his four children, is now instructing part-time out of Skyquest Aviation in Langley, British Columbia while continuing to endanger the Flight Levels with a Challenger 604 and resides in nearby Ocean Park with his wife who thought there would be fewer “Airplane Days” after he retired.

My finger had barely kissed the screen’s EXECUTE icon when the simulator gave a loud BANG followed by the most violent heaving, pitching, rolling, yawing and slewing I had ever witnessed. I could hear the motion system wheezing beneath us as the simulator cab shook and vibrated.

It happened one Christmas Eve, at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where I was captain of a 777-300. I looked out the front window to see passengers still running towards their gates, bags of Christmas gifts swinging, children struggling to keep up. I could tell from their posture and motion that they were either out of breath or in tears, maybe both.

In late Spring 1973, almost 44 years ago, I was 22 years old and on the cusp of achieving my life-long goal of becoming a professional pilot. It was an overseas flight with a notoriously-crusty old senior check captain so I was vibrating with anxiety. There would be no remedial training if this guy gave me a thumbs down at this tenuous point in my career.

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